aUniversity of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA bTufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA cDepartment of Transplant Surgery, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA dTransplantEthics.com, Sausalito, CA Corresponding author: Jeffrey Cooper, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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The proliferation of the Internet has spurred the creation of websites dedicated to facilitating living directed organ donations. We argue that such sites potentially devolve into “beauty contests” where patients in need are evaluated on the basis of their personal appearance and biography—variables which should have no relevance to organ allocation. Altruism should be the guiding motivation for all donations, and when it does, there is no place for a beauty contest. The power of the Internet is optimally used when it facilitates Good Samaritan donations—donations to any stranger, rather than handpicked ones. Social networking sites which aim to match potential donors and patients should mask personal identifying information, allowing the ethical principles of altruism and justice to guide organ allocation.